A week after Lula was sworn in, Bolsonaro supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace and vandalized the buildings.
Eventually, the police cleared the buildings of the rioters and arrested thousands of people.
Since then, investigations have been ongoing into the events of January 8, 2023, as well as previous alleged attempts to obstruct Lula’s swearing-in.
However, this is the first time police have uncovered an alleged attempt to kill Lula.
Speaking after news of the arrests broke, Social Communications Minister Paulo Pimento said the alleged plot to kill Lula and Alcmin was almost done.
“It (from implementation) was stopped only by details,” said the minister.
Brazilian news site G1 said it was particularly disturbing that four of those arrested were active-duty military personnel and the fifth an active member of the police.
The AFP news agency, citing a source in the federal police, said that four soldiers “were arrested in Rio, where they participated in an operation to ensure the security of the G20 leaders’ meeting”, which is currently taking place in the Brazilian city.
According to G1, four soldiers trained by special forces are accused of participating in a criminal organization that plotted against Lula.
Brazil’s federal police said in a statement that its investigation “shows that the criminal organization used a high level of military-technical knowledge to plan, coordinate and carry out illegal activities in November and December 2022.”
According to the statement, the conspirators not only planned to kill the president-elect and the vice-president-elect, but also wanted to arrest and execute a member of the Supreme Court after their coup was successful.
Police said the plotters nicknamed the operation “Green and Yellow Dagger” after the colors of the Brazilian flag.
According to the federal police, the conspirators discussed how best to “neutralize” Lula and Gerald Alcmin, and allegedly settled on poisoning the president-elect.
The arrests were made early Tuesday morning local time and were authorized by Supreme Court Justice Alexander de Maraes.
